Guggman Haus Brewing Co. has taken its Into The Wild sour series and pointed it squarely at the tropics with this entry, a Berliner Weisse brewed with papaya, pink guava, and vanilla beans that lands at a serious 7.8% ABV, well beyond what most people expect from something this bright and fruity.
The base style already leans tart, but wild yeast for natural souring pushes this one somewhere more complex than a standard kettle sour, layering dank papaya aroma against sweet-and-tart pink guava and a funky melon undertone that keeps things from getting one-dimensional. Milk sugars and oats round out the body, giving the whole thing a creamy fuller mouthfeel that tempers the wild yeast's sharper edges.
Combining genuine wild fermentation with an ABV this high is not a casual undertaking, most sours this funky stay lighter so the tartness doesn't get exhausting, but Guggman Haus has built enough of a reputation with this series to know exactly how far to push it. Indianapolis's Guggman Haus treats sour beer less like a side project and more like a genuine specialty, and this release backs that up.
Tapping today at the main taproom, so if wild yeast, tropical fruit, and a stronger-than-expected ABV all sound appealing together, there's no need to wait around.
Into The Wild has never been a subtle series, and pink guava and papaya are not about to change that.